Resource allocation
Public financing of education in Mongolia: equity and efficiency implications
Easing Mongolia’s struggle to maintain levels literacy achieved during the centrally planned system
Authors:
Publisher:
World Bank, 2006
Mongolia’s education sector is experiencing the results of multiple reforms as it struggles to maintain the levels of education and literacy that were achieved in the previous centrally planned system. This report examines the structure of education funding and the actual distribution of resources across schools in Mongolia. It examines three main questions in education finance:
- to what extent is the variation in the magnitude and composition of school budgets across regions and schools explained by the funding formula?
- how do resources flow through the education system during the different stages of the budget process?
- what comprises teacher salaries and how are current incentives designed and implemented in practice?
Authors provide a specific set of policy recommendations for the government to improve the transparency, efficiency, and equity of the education financing system, they include:
- modify the funding formula to provide incentives for schools to make savings in their fixed costs
- enhance equity across schools, students and teachers through the application of national rather than provincial-level criteria
- financial management training should be provided for provincial and school-level budget officers
- deductions from teachers’ salaries and salary supplements should be reported at the school, provincial and central-level
- encourage schools to develop strategy for sharing school budget information with parents and the community
- introduce incentives for efficiency in school spending, as teacher salaries drive the high variable spending, particularly for small, rural schools with shrinking student enrolments.
